Poor recent results have left Liverpool unable to beat Manchester City’s record points total but the party atmosphere was on display as they finally got to lift the Premier League trophy. The match was a bit more serious to Chelsea, who are still yet to confirm their place in next year’s Champions League.
Jurgen Klopp made just one change to the team that lost to Arsenal, bringing in Naby Keita in place of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and sticking with Liverpool’s usual 4-3-3 formation.
Frank Lampard set up in a 3-4-3 shape and maintained the same starting eleven that saw Chelsea through to the final of the FA Cup by beating Manchester United on Sunday.
Chelsea looked to hit the Liverpool backline directly. They would frequently hit long balls to Olivier Giroud, who would knock the ball down for Mason Mount and Willian tucking infield behind him.
They would also look to push their wing-backs high up into attack with the wingers tucking inside, doubling up on Liverpool’s full-backs. If Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold failed to tuck inside, the wingers could make untracked runs through the centre, but if they failed to push out, Reece James and Marcos Alonso had space to pick out crosses into the box. Chelsea would work the ball down one side to shift Liverpool across, then hit cross-field balls to attack the weaker side.
This is how Chelsea got their first goal.
With Chelsea blocking passes through the centre, Liverpool would look to the wings to attack, however once the ball was sent wide, Chelsea would push their wingers and wing-backs out to close down the Liverpool players.
Liverpool managed to run up a score through their individual quality though. You could argue the opener came from Chelsea leaving their midfield understaffed to play with a back five, but in truth it was just good counter-pressing to set it up and even better finishing from Keita. The second and third came from set-pieces: first Alexander-Arnold direct from a free-kick, then Georginio Wijnaldum punishing Chelsea from a corner. The fourth was a beautiful cross from Alexander-Arnold meeting Roberto Firmino’s head, while the fifth was a brutally efficient counter-attack. All of them were fairly typical Liverpool goals, but none of them came from anything that looked tailored to Chelsea.
Likewise, Chelsea’s first goal came from their attempts to double up on Liverpool’s full-backs and the second had a hint of that too, as Alexander-Arnold followed Alonso to give substitute Christian Pulisic space, however it was really the excellent dribbling of the American that set up Tammy Abraham, while Pulisic’s goal came from a mix-up between Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez that Chelsea pounced on.
Needing the ball to get back into the game, Chelsea came out for the second half pressing with greater intensity, although this left their midfield stretched. Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic would get tight to Liverpool’s midfielders to stop the easy passes into them as their front three closed down Liverpool’s defenders, however this left space between them that the likes of Firmino and Mohamed Salah were happy to drop into and receive the ball into feet.
To see out the game, Liverpool switched to more of a 4-4-2 formation, as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain came on for Salah and stayed more in line with the midfielders, giving Liverpool greater defensive width.
Oxlade-Chamberlain’s goal killed Chelsea’s building momentum and Liverpool ensured the kind of manic win suited for the celebration that followed. The loss saw Chelsea drop below Manchester United and just one point ahead of Leicester City going into a tough final game against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
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